Many schools in India have started health programmes to spread awareness among children on the importance of physical & mental health and hygiene, with the help of NGOs, especially in rural India, where people do not have access to secondary healthcare and are often unaware of the importance of hygiene and sanitation. There is a lack of awareness on the importance of a balanced diet and nutrition for growing children. This often leads to malnutrition, which jeopardises a child’s overall development. Ekam Foundation Mumbai, strongly advocates spreading awareness on sanitation and nutrition amongst children in schools. Children from underserved backgrounds are often at risk of being malnourished and prone to illness due to lack of access to health infrastructure. For the well-being of children, schools have enabled various interactive programmes to promote physical and mental well-being. Children are very impressionable, which is why health programmes aim to help them inculcate good practices that are beneficial for their overall well-being.
Ekam Foundation Mumbai, in collaboration with Lalithya Foundation, conducted one such initiative in Kolhapur district schools to provide guided help to healthcare and sanitation. The initiative reached 1200 students across 5 schools in the district and covered various issues. The team briefed the school principals about Ekam Foundation Mumbai’s work and offered their helpline number in case of any need. The team also held mobile van health checkups to detect and treat health issues. Around 1700 people, all ages inclusive, benefitted from this checkup and several health issues like body aches, weakness, fever, dental problems, etc. were detected.
Most school health programmes teach hygiene practices like handwashing, toilet etiquette, menstrual health, etc and spread awareness about physical health, nutrition, prevention of illnesses, usage of safe drinking water, meditation and other techniques for mental well-being. There are programmes that offer medical consults to children and screen them for diseases. Most of these programmes take place in public schools or low-income private schools as their students are more likely to be unaware of the issues covered by the programme.
Schools are an effective way of reaching students on a large scale and it is the best place to promote healthy habits. School health programmes are beneficial to the well-being of the overall population as these practices also help prevention of many communicable diseases. The Government of India focuses on such initiatives to ensure these programmes reach schools all over India. Ayushman Bharat is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Department of School Education & Literacy, and the Ministry of Human Resource & Development, and aims to spread awareness of age-appropriate health, sanitation, and mental well-being practices.
Ekam Foundation Mumbai, runs its own School Health Programme (SHP) and mainly serves schools run by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, Thane Municipal Corporation, and some low-income private schools. SHP runs with the sole intention of instilling a behavioural change in children, lowering morbidity and mortality due to common infectious diseases, and promoting overall health. Ekam Foundation Mumbai creates and curates information with the help of professional agencies, Education, and Communication (IEC) materials, which include a 35-40 minute digital presentation as well as other collaterals such as posters, standees, book labels, badges, etc. which are all part of the SHP. The material is then transformed into a story that entertains, engages, and teaches children about the importance of healthy practices. The session is made interactive by encouraging the active participation of students and engaging in meaningful conversations. Badges are distributed to responsive students, posters are put up all over the school for easy recall of the messages, and a short animated video highlighting the lesson from the previous year is shown at the end of the session.
Ekam Foundation Mumbai’s SHP has reached over 6 lakh students across 1400 schools in India from 2014-2020. In these 5 years, SHP has covered topics like handwashing & personal hygiene, toilet & sanitation, and safe drinking water. Ekam Foundation Mumbai has received tremendous support from many government agencies and schools for being one of the most interactive school health programmes in the country. Ekam Foundation Mumbai believes that the success of the SHP will come from reaffirming and reinforcing the lessons of the programme, leading to a healthier population.
To learn more about the Foundation’s programmes, follow @ekamfoundationmumbai on Instagram.
